Fun facts and observations

I thought I'd compile a list of all the observations/funny things I've noticed and learned about over the past 7 months. Some of these are just for fun, but some of them are more serious, in which case I ask you to remember that these are just my opinions of things I've observed here, and certainly not true in every case, or perhaps in any case.Here's the list:

• Germans have strong feelings against the name "Kevin." I've been told countless times that anyone who's named Kevin is a guy to stay away from. Apparently, Kevins are generally rude, stupid, ugly, arrogant - basically all negative character traits combined. I once heard, "Kevin is not a name. It's a diagnosis."
• This is the equivalent of Vera Bradley bags in Germany: http://media.cdn.impericon.com/media/catalog/product/a/d/adidas_acairline_bluebirddarkroyal_bag_lg.jpg These bags are actually pretty cheap, though, and are so popular that they are going out of style fast, and so the coolest people at school use leather messenger bags or even briefcases to get that ultimate European look.
• Germans are generally more worldly than Americans. American news broadcasters focus almost entirely on domestic issues, whereas in Germany the ratio is closer to 50/50. Germans just seem more interested in what happens outside their own country, and as a result are more knowledgeable about world affairs.
• Germans don't understand why Obama does not have a better approval rating, or why the November election was so close.
• At school, participation is worth a very significant portion of your grade (I'm not sure the exact number, but much more than then 10 or 20 percent you would normally see in the U.S.). Consequently, there is usually lively discussion during class, and most kids are eager to give an answer or share their opinion.
• When Germans leave restaurants, they usually say goodbye to the people sitting at the table(s) near them, even if they don't know them. 
• At grocery stores, in order to get a cart you need to put in a one euro coin into a slot, at which point you can detach the cart from the others. Once you're done shopping, you get your euro back if you return the cart and attach it to the others again. I think at some stores it costs two euros. In my opinion, this would be a great idea for the U.S., except none of our coins are really worth enough to encourage people to bring the cart back.
• The cashiers at grocery stores sit, and they are really fast. There are usually no plastic bags offered, so most people bring their own bags or baskets.
• I've mentioned this before, but the vast majority of water drunken here is tonic water.
• It's true that beer is often cheaper than water. 
• The German language has many different dialects and accents which are often vastly different from another. For example, the Germans from where I live (which is generally considered the 'normal' German accent and is what you hear most on TV) can hardly understand Germans from Bavaria. There is another dialect in Saxony, another in Hannover, etc. etc. People from Cologne speak Koelsch (at least traditionally), which is also barely understandable to me. Even my city has its own dialect, which isn't really prevalent anymore, but some older people here still speak it and it's hard for me to understand them. 

Well, those are just the things that popped into my head. There are probably many more little tidbits I could share but haven't come to mind. 

Deutschland Tour

2 weeks. 60 exchange students. 5 countries. 16 cities. My Deutschland Tour can not be summed in numbers, nor in words, nor in pictures, but today I'll attempt to describe the two fastest, happiest, most exciting weeks of my life.

We drove around Europe by bus - sixty teenagers packed onto a double-decker tour bus. It was always very loud, and there would typically be at least one person playing the guitar somewhere on the bus with people gathered around them singing along. The music selection ranged from your typical American radio songs to Latin American samba to old-school rock and everything in between. In contrast, however, the bus could also be dead silent, with everyone passed out in their seats from long days and long nights without sleep.

Occasionally we would crawl out of the bus, our eyes squinting at the bright sunlight (ha, I'm just kidding, there is no sun in Germany) and do the necessary "sight-seeing." I personally am not a fan of this kind of travel, because I find it very superficial and does not leave me with any real impression of the place we visited. I'd rather get to know a place for a few days than just stop for an hour to take pictures. There was a lot of this nonsense on the trip, which no one really liked.

However, we did occasionally stay in cities for longer periods of times. For example, we were in Berlin for three days, and those were perhaps the most enjoyable three days of the trip. Berlin quickly became my favorite city in Germany, and definitely one of the coolest cities I have ever visited. It was the first (and possibly the only) city that felt alive to me. So many of the cities we visited were indeed pretty, and made for great photos, but it felt like going to an amusement park and walking around the fake facades of buildings, half of which you can't even go inside, and it just gives you the "feeling" of being in an old western ghost town or whatever. It's not even that many of the cities we visited were "touristy" necessarily; they were just dead, like they only existed because tearing down these old buildings would "really be a shame," or for the sake of the hordes of Asian tourists streaming out of buses and squatting in front of the apparently significant landmarks to take pictures which they can later put in photo albums and tell their friends back home, "See this? This is important." It's all just a big misunderstood and messed up paradox that I really can't stand, but Berlin didn't feel that way to me. Berlin was certainly not the "prettiest" city we saw, as it has gone through significant reconstruction, and is at times modern and at times gritty, but never really old-world. But to see cars streaming down roads, the striking dichotomy of red brake lights against white headlights; people of all races and backgrounds and social classes pouring out of subway trains into the dark, rather dirty underground station; buses, trains, trams, taxis, bicycles, and automobiles streaming throughout the city like blood pumping through veins; people still walking around and about their business at midnight because a city this big and international and significant doesn't sleep, can't sleep - these are the things that make a city stand out to me. Berlin is a city that exists for itself, not for its tourists; a city that is significant and colorful and international; a place where things are really happening. At least that's the feeling I got.

It's hard to mention every highlight of the trip, because there were many, but some of my other favorite cities which I'd love to go on talking about but don't have the time/attention span to do so for are: Munich, Prague, Strassbourg (France), and Prague (Czech Republic).

Better than any sight-seeing, landmarks, or tourist traps, however, was spending time with 60 of my best friends from around the world. These are people whom I'll never forget, and the times we've had together will remain among my dearest memories.

Being at the top of the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, and looking out over the country in which I had lived for the past 8 months, I felt a rush of accomplishment, pride, and success. I was on top of the world and nobody could bring me down.